Son Of Nintendo ``super Nintendo`` Promises To Make America`s Favorite Video Game Even Better -- But At A Cost.

She knows the time is coming this summer or early fall when she will have to do battle with sons Justin, 12, and Ryan, 7.

The fight is likely to be repeated in millions of other households across the nation after today, when Super Nintendo will be announced to the world.

Blackmon`s sons have been avid Nintendo video game players for four years. They have about $1,000 invested in their game deck and electronic game cartridges.

But after today, it`s obsolete.

Super Nintendo, you see, is a new game deck to be produced by the leader in the home video game business. The new deck will be twice as powerful as the Nintendo machines now in 28 million homes across America.

Technically speaking, it will be a 16-bit deck, as opposed to the current 8-bit machines. ``Bit`` refers to the amount of information that can be stored in a video game. More bits means more information, which translates into better picture and sound and more complicated games.

``We`ve already got 15 or 20 games for the old machine,`` Blackmon says. ``Justin and Ryan are going to want this new one, and I`m just not going to buy it for them. Not at first, anyway. I mean it.``

Strong words. Fit for a battle between generations.

``If my parents won`t get me the new deck,`` Justin says, ``I`ll probably sell my old deck and games to get the money to buy the new one.``

Rumored to be on the way for almost 18 months, the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System -- Super NES in kid lingo -- will be priced at $190 for the basic game system. The old 8-bit game deck cost $99.

It`s not known how much the game cartridges for the new deck will cost. But -- you guessed it -- the cartridges from the old machine, which cost $35 to $50 apiece, won`t work on the new one.

Since 1985, when it first introduced its 8-bit machine to America, Japan- based Nintendo has proved adroit at selling its products in the U.S. home video game market.

Estimates by toy industry trade journals indicate that 50 percent of households with kids 18 or younger have become Nintendo territory.

This means a moral dilemma for Blackmon, who manages two bookstores. Currently, rentals of 8-bit Nintendo systems and games make up a healthy part of her stores` income, and Blackmon is ready to replace that stock with its 16-bit successors.

``As a parent, I may not be pleased, but if by December or so I see the (16-bit) is doing well, then we`ll start offering some of the new products,`` Blackmon says. ``We rent the decks and games for three days, and, say, for grandparents with grandchildren visiting for the weekend, that`s a good market for us.``

Nintendo has kept mum about almost every aspect of the new system, which will be unveiled today in Chicago at the summer Consumer Electronics Show.

``The difference is incredible,`` says Tony Gervino, senior editor of Toy and Hobby World magazine, which monitors the toy industry. ``It`s like the difference between a (small portable television) and a big-screen projection TV with stereo sound. It`s so much better. Kids will see the 16-bit Nintendo and love it.``

As a further sales ploy, Gervino says, Nintendo will include its first American 16-bit game in the start-up $190 game deck package -- Super Mario Brothers 4, a bigger, better continuation of the company`s immensely popular Super Mario Brothers game series.

``That`s a huge attraction for kids,`` Gervino says. ``(Parents) will just have to suck it up and let it happen.``

Nintendo`s initial goal is to sell two million 16-bit systems in America between Sept. 1, when the game is expected to reach retail shelves, and the end of the year.

The company`s chief competitors in the 16-bit market, both of which previously abandoned the 8-bit field to Nintendo, are NEC Technologies Inc. and Sega of America Inc.

NEC`s 16-bit TurboGraf system was introduced in May 1989 and has sold 750,000 game units. The 16-bit Sega Genesis arrived in September 1989, and 1.2 million game decks have been sold.

Advertising for both companies has stressed the superiority of 16-bit systems over Nintendo`s 8-bit products. But Nintendo`s entry into the 16-bit market probably will result in immediate sales domination, Gervino says.

``The new Nintendo will definitely not have the same immediate impact of the 8-bit NES, but right now Nintendo has become this country`s generic name for video games,`` Gervino says.

``Nobody`s better at promotion than Nintendo. Nobody`s better at having enough product to supply demand. Parents shouldn`t worry that this Christmas there won`t be enough new 16-bit decks to go around. And all the software companies that do games for Nintendo -- Konami, CAPCOM -- are rushing to get new games ready for 16-bit like Castlevania IV and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.``

Nintendo has indicated it will keep marketing games for its 8-bit machines.

In the Blackmon household, Justin is ready to move on and up.

``I`ll be kind of sad to see the old stuff go,`` he says, ``but the way I look at it is, I`m going to have the same thing back again, only better.``